Mark Feldman is amazing. Lots of downtown NYC-style stuff in his canon, but he's guested all over the place. His site looks a bit out of date, but that discography is a fine jumping-off point.posted by mintcake! at 1:41 PM on August 15, 2010

Blue October. "Sweet and Somber Pigeon Wings" from 1998's The Answers has amazing violin. (The other songs on that album also have amazing violin; 2000's Consent to Treatment has a bunch of songs with great violin, from a more rock 'n' roll perspective.)posted by shamash at 1:59 PM on August 15, 2010

Ultravox's Vienna (and much of the rest of their music from that period, courtesy violinist/violist Billy Currie).posted by scody at 2:37 PM on August 15, 2010

Tip Cup Prophette - example track Going Numb (She does this kind of indie-rock style, recording and looping tracks on stage, moving on to other layers of the song, playing them all at once, switching between violin, guitar, glockenspiel, and vocals. She also does Irish folk music)posted by Eumachia L F at 2:44 PM on August 15, 2010

Seconding the Bach sonatas and partitas; they are incredible. Piazzolla, as mentioned above, writes cool tangos and other South American-style music for ensembles with violin. The Paganini caprices are show-off pieces, very flashy.

The Red Violin movie soundtrack, composed by John Corigliano and performed by Joshua Bell, has a variety of different, mostly classical, styles, and a little bit of gypsy fiddling.

Ashley MacIsaac takes Cape Breton fiddling in a very different direction, especially the album Hi How Are You Today. Much more rock and roll grunge than kitchen party.

String quartets (2 violins, viola, cello) almost always have great violin parts. Alban Berg's Lyric Suite has some normal-ish parts and some extended techniques on the violin that sound really cool and eerie. And string quartets are trying to get cooler - Ethel, from NYC, plays new music and improvises and generally tries to break out of the stereotype, starting with the name.

Jesse Zubot is an amazing violinst from Vancouver who has played with so many people in many genres - folk, country, rock and roll. This winter he was touring with Hawksley Workman.posted by kyla at 2:44 PM on August 15, 2010

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, specifically the "Summer" concerto, either the first or last movement.

If I had to represent classical violin with just one or two tracks, I'd go with those two. But here are some more suggestions:

Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante, first movement. Brilliant interplay of violin and viola, though it might seem a bit stodgy in the context of your CD.

Brahms - Hungarian Dances. (Make sure you're getting a violin-and-piano version, not an orchestral version. Any of them would be good, but No. 5 is the ridiculously famous one.)

All those compositions are very famous, so you'll be able to find many of the top violinists playing them. Examples of some superstar classical violinists, off the top of my head, would be Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman, or Jascha Heifetz -- anything by them is a good bet. The standards for classical violin playing on professional records is so high that I wouldn't worry much about getting the best version.

One more: Andrew Manze is a phenomenal violinist who specializes in older classical music played on period instruments. Something by him could be an interesting, less-obvious counterpart to my other suggestions. For instance, I like his album of the obscure Baroque composer Uccellini. That'd probably be more of a dry acquired taste. Another suggestion along these lines: Biber's Rosary Sonatas.posted by Jaltcoh at 5:36 PM on August 15, 2010

As a musical illiterate, I found myself delighted with Lucia Micarelli a young, classically trained violinist who is on the tv series Treme playing a role as a busker in New Orleans. I got her Interlude album because it had the most soothing song in the world to me "Clare de Lune" and she also (on the show) tried her had at cajun music. Anything by the Pine Leaf Boys gives the flavor of that unique sound.posted by Anitanola at 5:48 PM on August 15, 2010

AIUI, you are planning to make one audio CD, so that's 75 minutes to work with. So about 25-30 minutes of classical music should be good. I'd say, take the Chaconne from the 2nd partita (Bach), one of Paganini's caprices (probably 24th), the presto of Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and I can't think of a suitable solo or violin-in-front piece from Romantic/Modern period right now (maybe Vaughan William's Lark Ascending).posted by Gyan at 10:24 PM on August 15, 2010

Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, and Joe Venuti for jazz violin. You have to have something from the Bach Sonatas and Partitas, and also try to get in a Ysaye solo sonata, maybe 2, 3, or 6. If you pick up a showpiece album by someone like Heifetz or Oistrakh or Milstein, you should be able to get a selection of short 3-5 minute pieces. (This being an example.) Hora Staccato is a real hoot. I've also been partial to Bruch's Scottish Fantasty (the last movement some will recognize as the melody of "Scots wha hae"), the Dvorak concerto (particularly 2nd and 3rd movements), the Sibelius concerto (1st and 3rd movements), and the Barber concerto (particularly the 2nd mvt).posted by Busoni at 1:40 AM on August 16, 2010

Ra Ra Riot features rock and roll violin. I highly recommend seeing them live- it emphasizes the fact that they are a violin band with indie rock backing, rather than the other way around.posted by theflash at 2:04 PM on August 20, 2010

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